


Big Plans

by fingergunslinger



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Complete, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Prom, Prompt Fic, extremely meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-31 03:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17841413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fingergunslinger/pseuds/fingergunslinger
Summary: Keith and the rest of Team Voltron have just beaten the rival school's robotics team with the help of new student Lotor. Keith doesn't trust him, but what is he supposed to do? With the regional tournament -- and Prom -- one week away, there's lots to do.





	Big Plans

"Hey, I'm really proud of you, Keith," Shiro said, as he pulled his black and red muscle car into the Garrison High driveway. "You guys did a great job at the robotics tournament last night."

"Oh geesh, not now, _please_." Keith sighed and pulled on his jacket, angling to leap from the car as soon as possible. As soon as his court-appointed guardian would let him.

"I mean it. First place against those kids from that Empire High magnet school, that's a big deal."

"It wasn't even our big win, though," Keith confessed. "We had a lot of help from that other kid who left that school, he told us all their secrets."

"Sure, but you and Pidge and the rest of Team Voltron really pulled together. I mean it, I'm really proud of you. You're going to do great next week."

"Pidge got you calling it that too, huh?" Keith sighed, good-natured.

"Heard you made prom court." Shiro pivoted.

"Who tells you this stuff?" Keith rolled his eyes but laughed it off. "I'm pretty sure it's a joke some other kids played on me."

"I dunno, man, you've got a chauffeur, a butler, maybe you're one of the popular kids after all." Shiro chuckled.

"Don't look at me like that." Keith laughed. "You know no one at this school would even know my name if it weren't for my phenomenal driving record."

For a court-appointment alternative to a parental unit, Takashi Shirogane was all right, but there were times when the weird lines between friends and family were just... Well, weird. 

Shiro checked the time. "Gotta get back to Atlas soon. I'll be here to help with Team Voltron--er, Robotics Club, after school?"

"Yeah, yeah." Keith sauntered out of the car, trying not to be seen getting dropped off like some kind of nerd.

Principal Sanda was such a blowhard. One lousy after-school parking lot drag race and now he was under "disciplinary considerations" and he had to get a ride from someone else. It was going to be a rough last six weeks of school--six weeks without parking privileges. A rough six weeks of awkward rides to school from his faux-dad. He sighed and walked in, underneath a big hand painted school pride banner - -

GARRISON HIGH GO LIONS!

At least he was early today. Homeroom was abuzz with more than a little gossip as the prom committee was assembling decorations now that prom was only a week away. The theme was something pointless: dance under the stars, something like that? All he knew was that he'd spent his entire homeroom period that month smearing glitter-glue on stars cut from cardboard boxes.

Drama teacher turned prom homeroom coordinator, Mr. Coran Hieronymous Wimbledon-Smythe, was directing the placement of cardboard stars on streamers with something like a sense of patriotic duty. He was that teacher who insisted on being on a first name basis with his students, but all things considered, it was probably a bit of a mercy that he let them call him Coran.

"Now, see, if you just put them all over the place, it doesn't look like anything, you've got to look at the star charts, so you've got the constellations right! Can't just put them where you like, or it's just silly! Back in my day, we'd have drawn all the charts out by hand--"

Keith ducked past the flailing arms and crossed through the doorway into the middle of the room. Tissue paper of every color on every surface; enough airborne glitter that some desks had sparkling snowdrifts. Coran's big plans were not to be outdone.

"Keith! It's so good to see you," Allura called out. He flinched a bit at the attention, but truthfully, he was glad she noticed him. "I was just finishing up this paper lantern. What do you think?"

She held out a papier-mache lion head, and Keith pantomimed putting it on, like a helmet, to which Allura began giggling. He grinned; he loved making her laugh.

"It's great!"

"Just like youuuuu," Lance called out from behind him, merrily snipping a large ball of tissue paper into a slightly-smaller ball.

"Ohmygodstopit," Keith growled under his breath.

"Whaaat, I didn't say anything," Lance replied. "Just trying to help you out, buddy."

"Please. Don't help. You're literally the worst at helping."

"Does someone have the glitter glue? And the scissors, my scissors are missing," Hunk asked as he wandered by the small group gathering at Allura's desk.

"You're holding them." Keith pointed. Annnnd who wants to tell him he's wearing half a bottle of glitter glue on the seat of his pants?

"Oh. Well, that was easy. Hey guys! Team Voltron meeting after school today? I can't wait to start working on this new build."

Keith scowled, half-heartedly gluing cardboard stars onto a ribbon streamer. "You know, I wasn't going to bring it up until the meeting, but I really don't like this new kid. I don't understand why he's so eager to help us out."

"Well, I think it's obvious he's just trying to make some new friends. He got kicked out of his dad's own school, you know." Lance shrugged. "I'd think you'd know what that was like, getting in trouble or even expelled..."

"Ugh," Keith replied. "Fine. But there's plenty of ways we can be nice to Lotor without letting him take over the spring semester build."

Allura gave him a prim smile. Uggggh, she was clearly not on Keith's side for this one. Welp, he'd really messed that argument up. He knew she really cared about the team and wanted everyone to get along, which was why she'd let Lotor into the club in the first place. It was the nice thing to do, since he was promising to help them. And he had; they'd beaten Empire High easily with Lotor's suggestions. It didn't feel right, though.

"Let's talk about it later."

"Awwww man! So, when were you all planning to tell me where the glitter glue ended up?" Hunk sighed, wrenching himself around to see the seat of his cargo shorts.

"Here, Hunk. Take the duck!" Coran produced a yellow rubber duck with a practiced theatrical flourish as he tossed it over. "My regular hall passes have all gone missing. You kids haven't seen them anywhere?"

Hunk awkwardly stared at the duck for a moment before shuffling off, duck in hand, to manage the glitter glue situation. The others looked at each other, shaking their heads.

#

Computer Science was Keith's A-block class. At least Pidge was in this class; as a sophomore, Pidge didn't share a lot of classes with the rest of the team, but most of the time they were already in more advanced classes than the others, anyway.

Keith took his loaner laptop out of the cupboard in the front and looked for a seat. Pidge was parked in the front of the room, which was entirely too close to the center of the action for Keith's liking. Way too likely to be called on as it is; Pidge's dad, Mr Holt, was their instructor. He knew Keith was in the club and liked to call attention to it.

Keith squeezed past Pidge, to the center row table which was littered with custom gear, too nice compared with the standard issue from Garrison High. Lotor.

The lanky platinum goth shot him a withering look over the rim of yellow-tinted glare reduction glasses, before resuming whatever program he was pecking out on his obnoxious ergonomic mechanical keyboard. Ugh. The only open seat with an available outlet was to Lotor's right. Keith rolled his eyes and slid into the chair, fumbling around to plug in the clunky school laptop.

As he waited for the loading screens to finish, he idly watched Lotor's tablet monitor--the angle and color of the input screens were inscrutable from a distance, but the movement was soothing. Lotor glanced over again, a more charitable grin on his face this time.

"Working on a more efficient power supply for Team Voltron," he explained, putting an awkward emphasis on "team" that Keith found unconvincing. "I think if I finish this today, we can test it out with the next build."

"You're doing so much work already. We all really like doing things as a team. Maybe you should let us help."

Pidge whirled around in their seat with a look of giddy wonderment. "More efficient power supply? That means I might be able to add a better drive system--" They put their hands on their cheeks and beamed.

Lotor smirked and tilted his head to acknowledge Pidge's excitement. "I'm sure everyone will be happy with this one. I think there will be plenty of work to collaborate on. Together."

"Yes, that's what 'collaborate' means," Keith replied.

"It seems important to you," Lotor said, dryly.  "Looks like your... computer... is finally on."

Keith turned to his own screen and sighed. Well, at least he didn't have a new software update to download today.

#

At lunch, Keith collected Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and Lance. The five of them huddled together around their usual table and compared notes on the relative poor quality of cafeteria food--creamed corn and some kind of vulcanized nugget--before settling in to a different question.

"I'm so sorry about this, everyone, but I..." Allura looked over her shoulders to see if anyone nearby might overhear. "I did something a little bit silly and I hope it won't be too much trouble. Lotor asked me if I'd be his prom date, seeing that we're both on the prom court, but I... I'd rather not have a date for such a big dance. So I told him that I already had plans. To go as a group, with all of you."

"So it's like we _alllll_ have a date," Lance said, smirking. "With each other."

"Don't look at me like that." Keith turned away and gamely attempted to ignore him.

Lotor was on the prom court? Weird. He glanced over to the corner table; true to form, Lotor was sitting alone, holding court with a large latte. The others at his table might be friends? It seemed like they were more likely an annoyance, considering his focused attention to his tablet.

Then again, Keith was on the court too, and it was hard to argue it was something other than a joke.

"I think it's a great idea," Hunk replied, shrugging, before a bite of rubbery chicken. "Saves time, saves Lance from fifteen painful rejections..."

"I'm in!" Pidge nodded. "No one wants to go with a sophomore, but I can only go if I'm invited in the first place."

"Pidge! You're a sophomore, not a vampire, but yes, you are invited." Allura laughed. "Keith?"

"Sure," he said, shrugging. "I made court, too, and I didn't even want to go, so at least this is easier than trying to ask anybody."

"Oh, thank goodness, that's settled, then. I just... I don't want the pressure of a solo date, you know?" Allura's laugh of relief felt slightly manufactured.

"Yeah," Keith agreed with a sigh. It probably would have been harder to ask her himself anyway. Besides, now he knew she'd have turned him down.

It felt better, but not necessarily good.

#

After school, Lotor was already waiting for the others on the bench in the robotics lab, disdainfully examining his iridescent violet manicure with a level of attention to detail that felt theatrical to Keith. Lotor put his thumbs through the holes in the sleeves of his thin, dark sweater and pulled it close around himself, the net effect a concerted effort to be less approachable.

That, tough as it was for Keith to admit, was a relatable feeling.

"Hey." Keith offered him a half-smile as he sat down. "Did you finish that program? I know Pidge was excited about it."

"No." Lotor's lips pressed thinly. "I thought I had it this morning, but even after spending the whole day on it, it still doesn't work. Besides, I should probably quit. It's clear I'm not welcome here."

"Look. I know I'm hard to get along with, but I think it's cool that you want to help us out with this even though you had to change schools midstream."

"My father expelled me, it wasn't my choice." The layer of disdain laid over the word _father_ stung like a backhand slap. Keith's dad was gone, and his mother, well.

Keith flinched. "Families are tough. That's why we all stick together--"

Lotor interrupted him with a dark, cold laugh. " _You_ all stick together."

Keith let it hang between them for a moment. "Is this about Allura?"

"It's not important."

"She told me--us--she just wanted to go as friends, that's all. I mean..." Keith shrugged. "I know. But I mean, it's not a big deal."

Lotor studied his cuticles in close detail, over the rims of his narrow glasses.

"The others will be here soon, why don't we work on your program?"

Lotor dug his tablet and keyboard out of his messenger bag, carefully, to avoid tipping out the rest of its contents, but Keith nevertheless caught the bright yellow glimpse of a rubber duck in its depths.

Once the others arrived, work began on the last build of the season.

"I still haven't got this quite right," Lotor gave a theatrical sigh. "I don't want to test this on the tournament build, in case it's a total failure. Is there anything I could try it out in while you all work on the rest?"

"Sure," Lance gestured over his shoulder at a large, blocky heap of parts. "That one came in over the weight limit, so we had to start over."

"Perfect."

Keith watched as Lotor made quick work of reassembling the various pieces of his new personal project, while the rest of the team concentrated on building servos for the tournament-required lifting and hauling moves. Several times, he could have sworn Lotor was watching him, too, but every time, it turned out to be his overactive imagination. He'd brought them schematics and programs and strategies from Empire High's team, and clearly, he intended for that to pay his way into the team dynamic, but it was pretty clear to Keith--Lotor had never intended to be part of the team.

#

"Weird vibe from the team today, huh?" Shiro asked as they both climbed into his car.

"Yeah." Keith agreed, and paused before deciding he really needed to get it out of his system, even if it was embarrassing to talk about. "You know... It's probably not a big deal, but Allura wanted us all to go to prom together, as a team. She sort of sprung it on us today at lunch, because she didn't want to go with Lotor as her date, like... Alone."

"Wait. Is he a creep?" Shiro asked. "We can kick him off the team if he's a creep."

"I don't know. I think Allura just didn't want to be boxed into a date with anyone."

"You didn't ask her?"

Keith frowned. "Nah, I don't think she'd ever want to go with me alone, either. We're all going together. It'll be fine."

Shiro patted Keith's shoulder. "I'm sure she's happy you're on her team date, then."

"Go Team Voltron," Keith sighed.

#

The following week was a whirlwind of decoration prep--butcher-paper murals rolled and taped to frames, more glitter glue on all available surfaces. Shuttling boxes from the drama room to the cafeteria and gymnasium.

"Do I _really_ need to take this?" Keith sighed as Coran handed him a large beach ball with the words HALL PASS scrawled in marker on its flank.

"Sorry, until I get my other hall passes back, we're using one you can't just put in your pocket without a lot of work."

Keith silently debated the accuracy of this argument, and then debated the merits of ratting out the duck thief but decided against it. Maybe it was just a huge mistake and he was imagining things. Maybe it was just an accident?

"Okay, but I can't carry all these boxes of paper decorations if I'm also carrying this beach ball."

"Good point! Allura! Carry the beach ball for Keith and help him take these lanterns to the gym." Coran twirled his bushy mustache in consternation before turning his attention to whatever Lance and Hunk had just knocked over, with a chorused "OOPS" between them.

"Thanks for all your help. I know you don't have a lot of attachment to this, but..." Allura started, gamely holding the beach ball as Keith propped the box of lion-head paper lanterns under his chin. "I'm just glad I have such good friends. That's why I nominated you. I didn't realize you didn't want to go to prom at all, or I wouldn't have put you in that situation. You don't have to go, I'm sure the others will understand."

"But it would have taken more than just one vote," Keith replied, puzzled. "I figured it was probably the guys from gym who were mad I beat them in that dumb drag race."

"I kind of... told a few people to nominate you, if they had room on their ballots." Allura's tan face ran blush-pink at the confession. "I didn't figure it would be a big deal, and I didn't even know it would work, I..."

"Look, it's fine." Keith laughed. "I'm guessing that's how Shiro heard about it?"

"Quite possibly." Poor Allura; her face was nearly the same shade of periwinkle as her hair.

"I'm glad you told me."

"You're not upset with me?"

"Of course not." Keith grinned. "Hey. Don't look at me like that. I mean it. It's fine. It's cute."

"Good." She sighed with relief.

#

At some point after lunch, someone popped Coran's replacement hall pass, so when Keith needed a break from Drama class, Coran provided him with a giant pencil and a prom court sash with the lettering removed and the words POTENTIAL SUSPECT written on it in order to be excused.

As he walked down the hall to the bathroom, he caught a glimpse of silver hair, darting around the corner. He looked at his hall passes and decided he clearly had permission to find out where Lotor was headed.

Around the corner, up the stairs, into the men's bathroom. Keith paced outside for a few minutes before following him in.

"It's rude to stalk people," Lotor sneered, from his perch on the radiator in the corner of the bathroom, tablet out as always, stolen duck hall pass sitting on his laptop bag--equally smug.

"What are you doing, Lotor? This is..."

"I'm bored. I'm tired of not being taken seriously. And public school wifi is easily hacked. Public school databases are even easier. I could send an email at this very minute that could send this school into utter panic and chaos. But that's not fun; teachers are so dull to play havoc with, when I can play with the hearts and minds of my--" he paused for an artificially dramatic breath here-- "so-called peers. None of you can even come close to what I have planned."

"Did you workshop that in Coran's class? He probably has a History of Villainous Monologues lecture for that."

"Of course I have." He picked up the duck, and gestured. "Where do you think I got this stupid thing?"

"I could always just... tell him you have it, then."

"And if you do, Keith, I will tell everyone how you've been following me around, bullying me, how you _made_ me tell you all of Empire High's robotics team secrets, made me help you _cheat_." Lotor eyed him coldly before contorting his face, a practiced pitiable expression calculated to infuriate. "Principal Sanda, I didn't _want_ to, but he was so _horrible_ to me, I thought maybe I could just do _one_ thing and he'd leave me alone, but he even followed me into the bathroom..."

"Wow. You've really thought about this." Keith squinted at him. There was no way out of this confrontation, was there? What a lousy conversation to be on the losing end of.

"So what's your plan? What's the point?"

"Why must there be a point? I'm better than all of you, that's the point. When I win--"

"--Win what?"

"Prom King. You haven't been paying attention, have you? Think of it. Prom King Lotor." His derisive laugh wasn't completely convincing; Keith knew it had the faint hint of actual self-loathing. "I'll show my boorish family, I don't need to be the dean's son to be popular, and--"

"--but barely anyone here even knows who you are." Keith shrugged, using the oversized eraser of the pencil to scratch his chin, before holding the giant pencil out to make an accusatory point. "And half of us who do? We think you're kind of a creep."

"Yes, but I have edit access to the spreadsheet tracking the votes." He clicked a tab, performatively. "Oh dear. There are only four votes for Keith Kogane. Should I delete those?"

"I literally could not actually care less."

Lotor looked at him dryly. "You _will_ leave me alone. You will _not_ interfere with my programming project. You will _not_ tell your silly friends."

"Not planning on it. This is too weird and creepy, even for you."

Lotor scowled and turned back to his tablet. "I don't know, I think it's pretty weird and creepy to stalk people, Potential Suspect, don't you?"

Keith stormed out of the bathroom, giant pencil in hand, fuming, knowing this couldn't be the only thing Lotor had planned.

#

By the time Keith arrived at robotics that afternoon, everyone else had settled in to work--And Lotor had put on a complete shift from his earlier tone. He excitedly delivered the news to Team Voltron:

"I've finished it, at last. I think we can implement this program I was working on after all."

Keith scowled and bit his tongue. If he said something now, what would happen? Would Lotor turn on him, on the rest of them? Would he just sound like a jealous loser?

Even Shiro congratulated him on finishing it, though. Keith grudgingly agreed with the others as they went around, testing out the new drivers--they were fast, that was for sure. Allura shot him an odd look, and he shrugged. He didn't know what Lotor's angle was. Team Voltron weren't exactly schoolwide heroes--they were just a bunch of geeky kids. This wasn't going to help Lotor look popular, or cool, or.... or whatever weird reasoning he'd concocted. What was he doing?

Lotor took a turn testing out the controller--waving the robot's arms, spinning it on its floor rollers--and he smirked as he did, taunting Keith. Keith sighed and did his best to ignore it, setting up practice maneuvers for the robot as if Lotor weren't deliberately trying to get the better of him.

#

"I'm really glad you're helping Lotor be part of the team, I think he's really coming around," Shiro said as they walked out to his car that evening, once they'd finished one last trial run. They climbed into the car and drove off.

It was going to be a busy weekend--Prom was Saturday night, and the robotics competition would be Sunday morning. Keith was secretly glad Allura had taken all the pressure off prom night. A group date with his best friends would be fun, even if it was bound to have some sour notes; he made a face thinking about Lotor's lofty ambitions. If his mission to be prom king succeeded, he suspected he'd also rig the results for the other half of the court as well.

"Hey, what's up?" Shiro nudged him, after several minutes of passive resistance to his earlier compliment. "I didn't think I was that cheesy, am I? Sorry, I'm still trying to figure out how to do all this, I dunno, dad-esque pep talk. What's going on?"

"Oh." Keith put his hands over his face. "I got dragged into this whole big... thing, and now I don't really know how to stop it, and I don't really want to talk about it but it's probably nothing but it's also really annoying."

"It's Allura, isn't it?" Shiro nodded. "I know she's very wound up about making sure this weekend is perfect."

"Don't look at me like that." Keith's eyes went wide. "No, it's this thing with Lotor. It's so stupid I almost can't even say it out loud."

"Try me. We've been through plenty of weird stuff, haven't we?" Shiro tilted his head. Fake dad had a point.

Keith scrunched himself down in the seat of the car, his arms folded across his chest. "Lotor is trying to rig the prom court voting so that he can win, and I don't know why."

Shiro barked out a laugh and tried to stop himself from laughing more, which was ineffective at best.

"I'm serious, Shiro. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard but it makes me so mad I want to punch him."

"I'm sorry I'm laughing, I know this is high school and everything's very important in high school, but what's the big deal if he wins?"

"What's the big deal? It's every stupid thing I hate about this school rolled into one arrogant, punchable rich kid who doesn't deserve anything he has and doesn't have any idea how good he has it. It's every stupid thing I hate about following bad, arbitrary rules just because someone told me to. It's everything I hate about trying to meet other people's expectations."

"Keith, getting a little too real for the album here," Shiro chuckled. "It's prom."

"I don't see what's so funny about this."

"You won't, for at least, like, three years." Shiro chuckled again. "Hey. If you need a break from all the drama, I'm not opposed to endorsing a skip day tomorrow."

"Nah." Keith shook his head. "Besides, I can't miss tomorrow, or I won't be allowed to do weekend activities."

"See, you're doing fine. You've got your priorities together."

#

Friday was a blur of glitter and paint and crepe streamers; balloon arches and decorated panels rolled into the gymnasium.

Coran's hall pass programming had escalated. The prom decorating team were given assorted ridiculous hats from the drama class prop room, with index cards tucked in them reading "HALL PASS" in increasingly frantic handwriting.

Keith sighed and wiped the sweat out from underneath his very heavy sombrero. "Okay, guys. I think we're almost done."

And out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lotor slinking, stupid duck hall pass in hand, toward the robotics room. What now? Why?

"What's eating you, Keith?" Hunk pushed his oversized top hat out of his eyes. Considering he was the biggest and tallest of the team, this was no small feat.

"Yeah, you can talk to us, dude," Lance replied, wearing a snapback trucker hat with the words "FOXY GRANDMA" emblazoned on it.

"Lance, I can't even look at you in this hat."

"Have you looked in a mirror lately?" Lance harumphed. "Like, anytime today?"

"There you are. Coran was looking for you all," Allura came down the hall after them, wearing a crown--a stuffy, over-elaborate thing from a misbegotten production of Richard III, dusty red velvet wrapped with fake gold plastic beads and hideous scratched purple rhinestones. "Last minute wrap-up. Something about... you know what, I lost track while he was mid-soliloquy, to be honest."

"You got it, Princess," Lance pointed his fingers at her, in an effort at suavete that was truly painful to watch, but Allura rewarded it with one of her heartwarming laughs regardless.

Keith was tempted to let the others go ahead, and try to find out what was going on down in the robotics lab, but with this sombrero? He sighed and trudged back to Prom Decor HQ, where, true to Allura's word, Coran's orchestration of affairs bordered on incomprehensible--but the decorations were coming together nicely. He helped shoulder another panel of glitter-constellation art to the gym with the others before the first period bell mercifully rang.

At the bell, he caught another glimpse of Lotor, leaving the robotics lab, his bag even more laden than usual. With what? But the hall was too crowded to follow him, and someone bumped into the sombrero, nearly knocking Keith to the floor. He scrambled back to the drama room and grabbed his bag for the rest of his classes.

#

Keith mulled over the details he knew, on the walk home--no robotics this afternoon, with the gym in full array for the dance the following night. He had even begged off last-minute decorating despite Coran's pleas.

"Hey, I've got to be in good form tomorrow if I'm going to be on the court, right?"

"Well, yes, but, you just have to show up for that." Coran squinted at him.

"Getting me into a suit is going to take a lot of work."

Coran gave him a dramatic sigh. "All right then, Keith. Have a good night!"

I should have told someone the whole story, Keith groaned to himself as he walked. Lotor's plans included Team Voltron, but how? He was rigging the prom vote, for whatever his weird personal vendetta was, but then what? At worst, he'd be forcing Allura to dance with him for one song--that seemed silly. Allura was kind enough that she'd probably dance with him if he asked, even if she'd turned him down for a proper prom date.

And why the robotics team, anyway? Of anyone for a lonely nerd to go after, it didn't fit.

What did he steal from the robotics lab?

"Why do I even care about this?" Keith argued with himself. "It's one stupid weekend. It's supposed to be fun. Why? Why is he so determined to make this a disaster?"

He is determined to make this a disaster, isn't he? It's got to be something. He clearly doesn't care about getting in trouble--he's only done the absolute minimum to shield himself from the repercussions. No one else has caught on to him, or if they have, they've concluded it's moody goth kid stuff.

And maybe it really was nothing. Maybe Lotor was just messing with him because he had carte blanche to do so; Keith was riding a fine line and didn't have the wiggle room to reveal his own minor delinquencies in order to also reveal Lotor's.

#

"You're sure you want me to drive you?" Shiro was extremely skeptical, leaning in Keith's bedroom doorway, arms folded.

"I can't drive on my own and I think riding in a limousine to a school prom would actually kill me," Keith replied, grumpily polishing his sharp black dress shoes.

"A well-reasoned argument." Shiro nodded, a faraway look on his face now. "I hope you all have fun tonight. These things are silly, but once you stop caring so much what other people think..."

"Yeah, yeah."

#

The gymnasium did look spectacular--everyone had gone all out. Sparkling, colored lights; lots of glitter. The partying was already in full swing; Keith was nearly an hour late and had debated not showing up at all, but Shiro had pushed him out the door.

Coran was already in full form as Keith walked into the gymnasium. "Finally! Everyone else is waiting!"

He whisked Keith up to the center of the room, where the rest of the court stood in their fancy clothes and sashes; Keith wrestled his own "Prom Court" sash over his head and shuffled over next to Lotor and Allura. Lotor didn't deign to take his eyes off his fingernails the entire time, but the smug look on his face was a message in and of itself. Allura, on the other hand, clearly radiated with excitement, utterly in her element; a princess-cut pale blue gown that went nicely with her upswept pale hair and tan skin, covered in at least as much glitter as the other decorations. Keith looked out into the crowd.

"Garrison High! Your prom court has been chosen, and your King and Queen are--" Coran leaned into the microphone with trademark drama-- "Keith Kogane and Allura Avaltea-- Please give them a big round of applause!"

Allura bounced with glee, but Keith froze. Wait. This was all wrong. What happened? His ears rang with panic as Coran handed him an awkward tiara.

"King's and Queen's Dance, everyone!" Coran bellowed. Wait. No. This was awful--it wasn't supposed to happen like this! He scanned the room, for the rest of Team Voltron, for where that scheming asshole had gotten to--

"Keith! This is fun, eh? Thank you. I worried you might not... actually show up." Allura gave him a hopeful look and put out her hands. "What's wrong? Surely you're not... disappointed that you won?"

"I need to tell you something, and it'll probably be easier if we just pretend we're dancing," Keith replied. "Lotor told me he was planning to rig the vote. I thought he was doing it to get you to dance with him or something weird because, let's face it, he's a creep, but this... Something's wrong."

"I think you must be imagining things."

"He told me." Keith insisted. "And where is he now? I don't see him."

"Let's turn slowly and look, but you're being very paranoid." Allura sighed. "What's the point?"

"I don't have any idea. He likes to think he's orchestrating something big, important..." Keith said, and realized what Lotor had taken from the lab--the controller for their tournament robot. He was going to sabotage the robot before the tournament--but why? For his dad's school? For his own pride?

Just for the fun of watching something burn.

"I think I figured it out. I saw him sneak down to the lab yesterday."

"He wouldn't," Allura gasped, but Keith shook his head. "If we figure out where he is, maybe we can get there before he can do something foolish."

"Too late for that, but we have to finish this dance, don't we?" Keith said. "Everyone's watching--"

Everyone's watching us--he's already down there. This song's almost over; maybe we still have a chance.

A crash on the opposite side of the gymnasium confirmed his worst fears--Keith turned sharply, not exactly a suave dance move--but all eyes were now on the robotics team's pride and joy as it charged through a paper mural into the middle of the room.

Students scattered as the thing spun around, and Keith realized it was not just their group project--Lotor had modified it, with the parts from the previous model, built out to be... not just their robot, some kind of robeast. With all his modifications, it was nothing like their competition bot. So he had meant to sabotage them one way or another.

Keith and Allura dashed forward. He scanned the crowd to find the others--or Lotor--and saw Pidge huddled over their laptop on the bleachers at the far end of the room. Must have gotten bored with all the dancing. Typical.

"Go get Pidge--Lance and Hunk have to be here somewhere--" Keith started, but Allura was way ahead of him, kicking off rhinestone sandals and bolting for the bleachers.

The refreshment tables, of course. Lance and Hunk, oblivious when food was involved. Okay. Game plan: stop the robeast, and by proxy, stop Lotor. Great plan, Keith.

"Guys, we gotta move! Team Voltron time." Keith shouted, and waved toward the spinning, charging, clunky machine. "Get everyone out of the gym and then we need to figure out where Lotor's hiding."

Keith dashed behind the different mural panels surrounding the gym with their elaborate constellations. Where would he hide? Circling back to the bleachers, Allura and Pidge shouted for him.

"I just cut his access to the wifi!" Pidge grinned--and sure enough, their robot skidded to a halt, crashing into another table, spilling punch and decorations in its wake as it drove the table to the wall.

"Still gotta turn it off!" Keith replied, and bolted after it.

"Keith, don't--It's not safe--" Allura shouted, and then ran after him.

The robeast's badly-anchored arms flailed around--he needed to cut the power but it was going to be difficult to get close.  He tackled it, pulled it down to the floor, and fumbled for the power supply. There was a switch, but it would only--

Coran charged forward. "Keith! What are you doing? What happened to--"

"Hold on!" Keith pressed the power supply, and it surged--quizznak!--but after a short jolt, the robeast toppled and collapsed underneath him. "Ow. We were set up--"

"Keith, You're all right!" Allura shouted.

"Yes, that's the important thing." Coran nodded for a moment. "Wait. No it isn't. What happened here? There's... frankly a bit of a panic on, at the moment."

"Someone tried to frame us, and ruin prom, and our robot, at the same time." Keith sighed.

"Come on, let's go talk to Principal Sanda."

#

Waiting in the principal's office was always bad, but it was even weirder at this late at night. There was a loud conversation going on, on the other side of Principal Sanda's door, unintelligible.

Allura sat quietly, a sad look on her face.

"We're going to be fine, Keith," Lance said, and Hunk nodded, propping himself up in his chair, hands under his chin.

"I could use a nap, I think."

"So what happened to Lotor?" Keith asked.

"I caught that smug little punk with my rubber duck. Tripped over his bloody bookbag and nearly fell over and there it was. I dragged him down here to wait for the principal--and his parents." Coran leaned in the office doorway, holding out the evidence.

"So. Guess that's it for Team Voltron for a while, huh, guys?" Pidge asked, their face glum.

"Looks like it," Keith sighed.

The door opened, and a stern-faced man with a build like a refrigerator stalked out swiftly, Lotor trailing in his wake. Coran ducked out of their way as they stormed through the exit. Lotor looked miserable--Keith winced. If he were less of a jerk, he'd probably feel pretty bad for him, but at this point...

"Wow. That guy is clearly a supervillain," Hunk said after they were out of earshot.

"I understand there was a... kerfuffle with the robotics team equipment at the dance this evening. I'm sorry your project was destroyed." Principal Sanda stared at them, stone-faced. "I don't even know where to begin with this situation. I hear it was your quick thinking that ended the excitement, Keith. Thank you. I'm glad you're displaying... better judgment."

"It was a team effort."

"I've taken the liberty of calling your parents to get you home safely. I'm sorry about all this. We're discussing how to make things right. As you can imagine, the conversation did not go well." Principal Sanda snorted.

#

"You did the right thing. I'm really prou--" Shiro started, on the long walk from the principal's office out to his car.

"Ohmygodstopit." Keith shook some glitter out of his shaggy dark hair. "We came together and stopped... some dumb attempt to get robotics club canceled. And Principal Sanda isn't going to expel me. The rest of this was..."

"Did you have fun--"

"--Okay, yes. It was a little bit fun. Everyone worked together."

"Sorry about the tournament tomorrow."

"Eh, it's all right."

"You guys worked so hard, just for your project to get ruined." Shiro said. "Wonder if I can get them to postpone it or something. It's really unfair to lose after this kind of sabotage."

"I told you he was up to something, I just couldn't figure out what." Keith shrugged.

"I should have listened, that's my fault." Shiro bit his lip. "Late night diner sound good? I could use a milkshake."

"Yeah," Keith agreed.

#

Later that morning, after some rest, Keith woke up to a loud phone conversation in the other room.

"That's great, I'll tell him now... Thank you. I know it was a lot of work... Great. Thanks."

Keith yawned and leaned out of his bedroom. "Tell me what?"

"Two things. Well, three things. One, your new friend bought himself a two-week suspension; two, the robotics team umpires agreed to a one-week delay in order to rebuild. Three..." he counted out on his fingers for emphasis. "I called in a favor at work and Atlas is going to give Team Voltron a little help rebuilding."

"Wow, that's... a lot to take in all at once. Thanks."

"You all worked so hard, I figured it was probably worth it to see what I could do. Mr. Holt was furious when he found out what happened. That guy, he seems real quiet, but he's the robotics team equivalent of a soccer mom." Shiro laughed, shaking his head. "Anyway. Looks like Team Voltron gets to fight another day."

"Go Team Voltron!" Keith pumped his fist in the air before making an about face, back into his bedroom.

"And where are you going?"

"Team Back To Bed, It's Too Early For This," Keith mumbled, already face down in his pillow.

**Author's Note:**

> Complete fic. Written for a 48-Hour FilmFest/Iron Chef style challenge with some friends this weekend. 
> 
> prompt was: High School AU featuring some kind of Fake Date; required: "Don't look at me like that" as a line of dialogue; required prop: a rubber duck.


End file.
